Outside the hallway, I murmured to my brothers. “I’m going to the garden,” I told my brothers quietly. “I need to clear my head.” They didn’t question me. We were all too drained to speak.

She froze for a moment, then hesitated… and finally walked into the garden. She didn’t speak right away. Neither did I. The silence between us felt thick–but strangely comforting.

We reached Anita’s room, and the moment I stepped inside, I stopped cold. Lennox and Louis were already there. Lennox leaned stiffly against the wall, arms crossed, jaw tight. Louis didn’t even look at her–just stared blankly at the floor. My mother stood beside the healers, nervously biting at her thumbnail, while three healers surrounded the bed.

“Absolutely not,” Lennox added, his voice ice.

After some time, the room grew quiet.

Lennox and Louis noticed too. I could feel the shift in the room–feel them stiffen. Lennox’s eyes locked onto her like she was gravity. Louis took a step forward without realizing.

“Why?” she asked softly. “Why don’t you want to mark Anita… to save the baby?”

“Alpha…” one of the healers spoke suddenly, snapping me out of the trance. “You have to mark her.”

The crying grated on my nerves. The healers worked on her while my brothers and I stood quiet.

Anita broke it with a soft, pathetic cry. I didn’t move. Neither did my brothers. She curled in on herself, weeping into the pillow.

She blinked, thrown off.

Anita whimpered again on the bed, but none of us felt pity for her.

“I…” she started, then hesitated. “I’m trying to.” That answer made something in my chest tighten. She looked away, fiddling with her fingers. “He’s been good to me. Kind, in his own way. He protects me. And he says he loves me… I’m trying to believe that. To grow into that.”

“Levi… you need to see this,” he yelled from outside. The urgency in his voice told me something was wrong. I jumped out of the bed and went to the door… I pushed it open and saw Clark standing in front of me.

“And that baby?” I said. “I don’t even know if it was ever really mine. But even if it is… I’m not giving her a bond she doesn’t deserve.”

And this time I decided to ask. “Do you love Damien?” I didn’t know why I said it, but I am not taking it back.

But all I felt… was a blank feeling… If I could lose Olivia, then I am prepared to lose anything.

“I never loved her,” I added, my voice low. “She was just… convenient. And I’ve lost too much already to keep sacrificing pieces of myself for things that were never real.”

What the hell was happening to me?

“Do you feel anything?” I asked, my voice low. “Butterflies? Heat? That pull in your chest like something is anchoring you to him?”

“What happened?” I asked, panicking.

I turned and finally met her eyes.

A hurried knock landed on the door and by the scent I realized it was Clark, one of our betas. I groaned but didn’t ask him in. He knocked again and I got irritated.

“Don’t leave,” I said before I could stop myself. “You can come in.”

A soft rustle behind me snapped me out of it. I turned. There, by the edge of the path, stood Rebecca. She was halfway turned, clearly trying to sneak away unnoticed.

“I could kiss you.”

Anita was screaming. Blood soaked the sheets under her, the metallic scent so thick it made my wolf recoil. She gripped the sheets, crying and writhing as pain wrecked through her body.

“I don’t know what love is," she admitted. "Everything feels blurred. And Damien once loved a lady. And… I don’t know if what I feel is comfort, or something deeper. I can’t tell the difference.”

“Because I don’t love her,” I said.

I blinked. “What?”

She didn’t say a word. Just stood quietly near the doorway, her eyes on Anita.

She looked at me, her brows slightly furrowed.

She kept begging between sobs. “Please… save my babies… please…”

Rebecca said nothing, just watched me closely.

“And she never will be,” Lennox snapped.

Her head turned sharply, her eyes widening. “What?”

“We’re not doing that,” I said flatly.

“I miss you,” I whispered, though the wind carried it away before I could even believe I’d said it out loud.

I didn’t look at her. I just stared ahead, my jaw clenched. Because I couldn’t explain it. Not fully. So I gave her the only truth I had.

I felt my heart harden instantly. Lennox scoffed and looked away. Louis clenched his jaw. I let out a cold breath.

I looked away again.

I sat on the stone bench near the rose bush she once planted and ran my fingers through my hair. My thoughts were a storm–Olivia, Anita, the child we’d just lost… the way Rebecca had walked into that room and effortlessly shattered my focus.

“You can take that option off the table,” Louis finished.

That answer hit harder than it should’ve. And that’s when I said it.

When she got closer, her scent hit me again–soft, warm, familiar in a way that shouldn’t have been possible. I inhaled deeply, and my wolf stirred again, tugging at my soul like it was reaching for something it had lost.

I nodded slowly, but something inside me bristled. I didn’t like this. I didn’t like the idea of her trying to force love for someone else. Especially not him.

I didn’t move closer. I didn’t even blink. I just stood there, arms crossed, watching as she twisted in pain.

“She’s hemorrhaging again,” one of the healers said.

And then, before I could stop myself, another question came out of me.

“What!” I barked at him.

“I…” she frowned. “It’s just a kiss. Warm. Gentle. Nothing intense. It doesn’t feel… electric or anything. Sometimes, I don’t feel anything at all.”

For a moment, she didn’t speak. Then, very softly, she said, “That must’ve been hard to say.”

I frowned. “And what’s wrong with her?” I asked sharply, my voice laced with irritation.

“She is having complications,” he said.

“She’s not our mate,” I cut her off. “She never was.”

“To help you know,” I said softly, my voice lower than before. “So you can tell the difference. Between what’s real… and what’s just comfort.”

The healer tried to speak again, but none of us stayed to listen. We turned and walked out together.

“She played a game and lost,” I said, my eyes still on Rebecca. “This is her consequence.”

“It wasn’t hard,” I replied quietly. “It’s just the truth.” And the silence returned… but this time, it didn’t feel tensed.

Her eyes widened even more. “What?”

She looked between the three of us, worry in her tone. “It’s not just blood loss anymore. Her connection to the father is weakening. If none of you mark her… she may lose the remaining baby.”

Throughout the night, I couldn’t sleep… so many things were in my head. Firstly, we had just laid Olivia to rest but deep down I still can’t accept it… somehow, deep down I feel like she is still alive… it is delusional of me, but I just can’t get away from those thoughts.

I should’ve felt something. Pity. Worry. Even concern for the babies…

A long silence followed.

Her eyes snapped to mine. The question hung between us, awkward and heavy. I didn’t even know why I asked. Maybe it was curiosity. Maybe jealousy. Maybe something deeper I didn’t want to name yet.

“She made her choices,” Louis added.

Finally, she broke the silence.

I stared at her, not knowing what to feel. That might’ve been our child. But there was no ache. No panic. No sense of loss twisting in my gut. Maybe I was too numb. Or maybe, deep down, I’d already disconnected from everything tied to her.

The healer’s eyes widened. “But–if you don’t-”

What was this? How could someone pull us in like this–so easily, so completely?

Levi’s POV

She didn’t deny it.

Once outside, I drew in a deep breath and tilted my head to the sky. The garden was still. Silent. I thought of Olivia, how she used to walk here every evening. I could almost see her now–barefoot, smiling, humming something under her breath. My chest tightened.

The head healer stood upright, her gloves stained red. She let out a breath. “She’s stabilized… but…” she paused and looked at my mother. “There’s only one baby left. The other baby is gone.”

“It’s Anita…. I think something is wrong…”

Before I could think more, the door creaked open and Rebecca walked in. The moment her scent hit me, my wolf stirred–again. It was like my heart recognized something before my mind could even catch up.

“How do you feel when you kiss him?”

“But you don’t love him yet,” I said quietly.

My wolf has been oddly silent, and I could tell he was mourning Olivia, just like me. It was already late in the morning, but I just couldn’t get out of bed… I felt drained, staring at the portrait of Olivia all through the night… I had shed silent tears and never, for once, blinked my eyes… I stayed all night imagining this wasn’t real… our Olivia couldn’t be gone just like that…

My gaze snapped to her like a magnet. Everything else vanished. The blood-soaked bed. Anita’s sobs. The hollow ache in my chest. All of it. Gone. All I saw… all I felt… was her.

“I won’t let her tether me,” I continued, my tone firmer. “Not with guilt. Not with pain. And not with a child I never asked for.”

I cursed under my breath and followed him, the urgency in his footsteps forcing my own.